High School Whenever: Lost in Vegas
High School Whenever Lost in Vegas (or simply High School Whenever 4), is a 2012 American 3D computer-animated action-adventure teen comedy film produced by 20th Century Fox Animation for Palm-Tree Animation. It is the twelfth film by 20th Century Fox Animation, the 21st film by Palm-Tree the fourth installment in the High School Whenever film franchise, and the first entry in the "Lost In..." series. The film was directed by Brandon Minez and Drew Cohen from a screenplay by Steve Purcell and Joe Stillman and a story by George Redding, Mark Hollandsworth, Ash Brannon, and Tony Windmill and it takes place during the twenty-second season. In this film, Nathan and the gang traveling to Las Vegas, Nevada for Amanda's eighteenth birthday party. However, after rescuing a seventeen year-old woman named Zoey from a very mean-spirited thug-gang, they soon discover that Max is a dangerous man in Las Vegas and plans to create a war zone that could kill Nathan and the gang, so they must stop him before it is too late. Jesse McCartney, Brittany Snow, Haley Joel Osment, David Gallagher, Hayden Panettiere, T.J. Miller, Hynden Walch, Candi Milo, Matthew Broderick, Sean Marquette, James Arnold Taylor, Tara Strong, Michelle Trachtenberg, EG Daily, Elijah Wood, and Chris Hardwick reprise their roles from the previous installments, with John Goodman reprising his role from the second movie. New cast members include Ricky Gervais, Liz Gillies, Matthew Lillard, Logan Lerman, Patrick Warburton, Miranda Cosgrove, Tom F. Wilson, Dan Folger, Josh Peck and Brad Garrett. High School Whenever: Lost in Vegas was the first Palm-Tree film to use The LaRoque.Geo.Wildshill Technology which can make each Palm-Tree movies realistic as possible. High School Whenever: Lost in Vegas held its world premiere on June 20, 2012 at the Fox Village Theater, and was released on June 29, 2012 in the United States. It received positive reviews from critics with many considering it an improvement over its predecessor, as well as the praised its concept, screenplay, animation, humor, voice acting and Gregson-Williams' score. It grossed $898 million worldwide on its budget of $186 million becoming the fifth-highest grossing film of 2012 and the highest-grossing animated film of the year, and the fourteenth-highest grossing animated film of all-time. It was followed by a prequel called The Daniella Movie on April 1, 2016 and will be followed by High School Whenever: Lost in New York on July 18, 2018. Plot Coming Soon! Cast * Jesse McCartney as Nathan Phillips, a 14-year old boy * Brittany Snow as Miranda Hopkins, Nathan's girlfriend and love interest * Haley Joel Osment as Zachary Miller, Nathan's best friend * David Gallagher as Chris Phillips, Nathan's overprotective brother * Hayden Panettiere as Kelsey Phillips, Nathan's middle sister * T.J. Miller as Eric Phillips, Nathan's second older brother * Hynden Walch as Megan Phillips, Nathan's sister * Tara Strong as Mackenzie Phillips Nathan's sisters * Candi Milo as Amanda Phillips, Nathan's oldest sister * Matthew Broderick as Roger Phillips, Nathan's older brother * Sean Marquette as Nick Phillips, Nathan's middle brother * James Arnold Taylor as Selena Phillips, Nathan's middle sister * Michelle Trachtenberg as Jessica Phillips, Nathan's little sister * EG Daily as Candace Phillips, Nathan's second-little sister * Elijah Wood as Jake Phillips, Nathan's third-older brother * Chris Hardwick as Alex Phillips, Nathan's only 15-year old brother * Liz Gillies as Zoey Valentine a eighteen-year old girl and a friend of Amanda Phillips. * Ricky Gervais as Benny Bedderhead a Frank Sinatra knock-off who plans to create a war-zone and kill Nathan and his friends. * Matthew Lillard as Skip Porter a seventeen year-old teenager and Zoey's boyfriend. * Logan Lerman as Mark * Miranda Cosgrove as Rosie * Patrick Warburton as Tom * Tom F. Wilson as Rodney * Dan Folger as Kevin * Josh Peck as Sam * Brad Garrett as Adam * John Goodman as Bob Ogletree Additional voices * Lori Alan * Carlos Alazraqui * Bob Bergen * Ash Brannon * John Cygan * Bill Farmer * Don Fullilove * Teresa Ganzel * Gary Hall * Jess Harnell * Daniel Kaz * Audel LaRoque * Danny Mann * Mona Marshall * Mike Moon * Laraine Newman * Jan Rabson * Jim Ward * Colette Whitaker * Michael Wildshill Production Following the success of High School Whenever 2 & 3, a fourth High School Whenever ''movie was announced in August 2009 by Palm-Tree founder George Redding.: "''High School Whenever movies are at least four: maybe more, but we know there are at least four chapters to that story." Joe Stillman, previously known for co-writing Universal's M.I.S.S.I.O.N. (2005) as well as DreamWorks' Shrek (2001) TriStar's Planet 51 (2009), and Universal's Computeropolis 3 (2010) was asked to write the script for the fourth film. Later in November 2009, it was announced that Brandon Minez, who was the producer of the first two Computeropolis films one of the developers, and the co-producer for the third season of That's What Girls Do: The Animated Series, and co-directed by Drew Cohen, a supervising-animator on the first three films. Release The film's first teaser trailer was released with Kung Fu Panda 2 ''on May 26, 2011, and was also shown before ''Cars 2, Gabriel Garza, Zookeeper, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, Dolphin Tale, The Lion King 3D, and Puss in Boots. The first full-length trailer was attached as an exclusive sneak peek and a first footage on November 6, 2011 during an episode of TeenV, and was shown before Arthur Christmas, Happy Feet Two, The Muppets, Alvin and The Chipmunks: ChipWrecked, and The Big Year. A second teaser was released on February 19, 2012 during an episode of Family Guy followed by a second full-length trailer on and was later attached to films such as The Lorax, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, and Brave. A huge amount of merchandise was made for High School Whenever: Lost in Vegas, such as toys and figurines. 20th Century Fox teamed up with several major companies to promote the film, including McDonald's, who included 20 toys in their Happy Meals featuring the main characters, and Airheads, who made limited-edition flavors "The Jake Flavor" and "Nathan's White Cherry Taste". A contest, which ended in early April 2012, allowed fans to submit ideas for flash animations to promote the release of the film. The winning idle idea "Nathan's Move" was unveiled on May 14, 2012. Home media High School Whenever: Lost in Las Vegas was released in the United States and Canada on DVD and Blu-ray by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on December 4, 2012, with a standalone single-disc DVD release being released on that same day. The release included a new short film titled Punk-Rocking Zoey. The film was re-issued on Blu-ray on May 26, 2015. It includes a movie ticket to another film by Palm-Tree, Henry and Ted. It was re-issued again on Blu-ray on February 21, 2016 which a includes a movie ticket to its prequel, The Daniella Movie. Video game A video game based on the film was published by THQ and released on June 5, 2012, for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360. Reception Critical reception High School Whenever: Lost in Vegas has received positive reviews from critics. Based on 187 reviews, the film holds a 80% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus stating "High School Whenever 4 takes the same premise as Vegas Vacation which was made 15 years before; offering a family version with bodily humor, epic action sequences, and a witty light tone." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has an average score of 77 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Box office High School Whenever: Lost in Vegas grossed $411.6 million in the United States and Canada and $487.3 in other countries with a total of $898.6 million. Worldwide, it is the fifth highest-grossing film of 2012, the highest grossing film of 2012, the sixth highest grossing film by 20th Century Fox Animation, the fifth highest-grossing film by 20th Century Fox behind Henry and Ted, Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, The Danniella Movie, Titanic, and Avatar, and the fourteenth highest-grossing animated film of all time. North America In the United States and Canada, High School Whenever: Lost in Vegas opened across 3,541 theaters, of which 3,100 showed the film in 3D. It grossed $50.8 million during its Thursday night showings, which is, at the time, the biggest of all time for Palm-Tree. The film then earned $175.1 million on its opening day (including Thursday previews), making it the biggest opening day for a 20th Century Fox Animated film (breaking Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaur's record) and the biggest opening for a 2012 film. In its opening weekend, it exceeded expectations and grossed $129.9 million, finishing first at the box office. This marks the biggest for an original non-Disney animated film (until it was broken Paradoria), the studio's second-biggest of all time (behind Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaur), the biggest June animated opening, the third biggest opening weekend for 20th Century Fox, the biggest June opening, and the third biggest animated opening of all time, at the time, behind Computeropolis 2($133.5 million) and Shrek the Third ($121.6 million). It also set the record for the largest opening for any original film, live-action or otherwise, not based on sourced material, eclipsing the $77 million debut of Avatar. The film stayed number one for four weeks until it was taken by The Dark Night Rises. In its second weekend, the film fell by 40% to $50.7 million while maintaining the top spot, despite facing stiff competition with newcomer The Amazing Spider-Man. It ended its theatrical run on January 10, 2013 playing for a total of 170 days on theaters with a total gross of $411,625,115. It became the highest-grossing animated film of 2012, the fourth-highest-grossing 20th Century Fox Animation film, the highest-grossing 20th Century Fox film of 2012, the third-highest-grossing film of 2012, the fifth-highest-grossing 20th Century Fox film, and the 51st highest-grossing film of all time. Accolades Watch 2013 Kids' Choice Awards. Transcripts Coming soon! References Category:2010s Category:2012 Category:20th Century Fox films Category:Palm-Tree Animation Category:Films directed by Drew Cohen Category:Films directed by Brandon Minez Category:20th Century Fox animated films